19 minute read
Winter Captured on Canvas
JUDY LARKINS
Capturing and Crafting Winterscapes
Astark winter scene may first appear to the eye as dull and dreary. Shades of gray, brown, and white, with subtle hints of blue and dark green, can make a winter landscape feel lackluster. Distant. Uninviting.
Some artists are especially prolific this time of year, having developed a number of techniques to capture bland winter subjects and transform them into alluring works of art. CML recently spoke with local artists David Thompson and Judy Larkins to find out how they draw inspiration from “cold” subjects, and achieve mastery in portraying local winterscapes as full of color, texture and breathtaking beauty.
CML: What do you love most about the season, and what does the winter mean to you?
Judy: I grew up near Vaughn Woods in Maine, and spent winter weekends out in the snow, either sledding, skiing, or walking in the woods with my family. Winter in the NC mountains means forest hikes, and cross country skiing on the Parkway and Roan Mountain after beautiful snowfalls. I love the covering of snow on trees and trails, and the quietness—I like to be the first to hike a snow covered trail.
David: I’m a native of Ontario, Canada, so cold, snowy days are fun for me. The sting of wind wakes up my creative juices.
CML: As an artist, how does capturing winter scenery vary from other seasons, and what winter subjects inspire you most?
Judy: All of western NC is inspiring to me in all seasons, but the snow scenes are fun to create, especially snow covered trees and trails.
David: Light and shadow relationships become more dramatic with the winter season’s paintings. The direction of light is more on an angle. Snow texture and movement is fun to create and experience. Capturing winter scenes compared to other seasons involves cooler colors. And, best of all, you don’t have to paint leaves. Leaves can be a real pain.
As far as winter subjects, anything along the Blue Ridge Parkway, around and up on Grandfather Mountain, and lots and lots of trees. Around 4:30 in the afternoon is a great time to sketch and plan paintings. The sun cuts through the trees producing strong value changes and movement.
CML: What is your process for “painting winter”?
Judy: My process is mixing oil paint with cold wax, which makes a frosting like mixture that glides over the dark underpainting on a wood gessoed panel— this brings out patterns that remind me of winterscapes, and I work with scrapers, not brushes, until they say what my intentions are. There is both spontaneity and control, but keeping in mind contrasts in shape, value changes, texture and composition. I do not paint from a photo, but from how
DAVID THOMPSON
A CML Interview with Artists David Thompson and Judy Larkins
the painting evolves, and I guide it along with print making and marks; I sometimes add mica, marble dust, charcoal dust and bits of charcoal scraped from a burnt stick to add some highlighted darks to my birch trees and rocks.
David: Especially during the winter season my process includes sketches and small studies before the actual painting. This is always done on location. I always carry a sketch book, not a camera. Photos are flat and they can lie. You lose shapes and movement with a photo.
I love winter colors and values. Blues, grays, some purple (my favorite color) combined with phthalo blue, white fluffy clouds with a little pink and gray. Shadows are deeper and stronger. My mediums include watercolor, acrylic, and oil. My favorite is oil on canvas and wood panel.
CML: What projects do you have planned for this winter, and has COVID impacted or influenced your art?
Judy: I am enrolled in Cold Wax academy presently, and taking online weekly classes, which continues to inspire me to grow in my oil and cold wax techniques. These classes are helping me evaluate my work immensely. With COVID, I have painted more. I find I am not as spontaneous and spend more time detailing, which loses the spontaneity. I did a sidewalk demo in Burnsville in October, and have given some private painting lessons.
David: COVID has been difficult for me as an artist. I’ve always been part of various paint groups. I’m a social person and I like being with other artists; it fuels my energy. On the positive side I’ve done more outdoor Plein Air painting around the Grandfather Mountain area. I have a year round family pass to enjoy greater access to the wonders of Grandfather, and I’m a big believer in the future so that generations to come can experience nature and beauty the way we do today. Currently I’m working on winter tree landscapes, country roads, some barns, and hopefully all three included in one painting. I’m also working towards the North Carolina Environmental Education Certification. Combining the beauty of nature and art is an awesome combination. It thrills me.
CML: Where can readers view or purchase your art?
Judy: You can view my art on my Facebook Page, Painting Creations by Judy Larkins (https://www.facebook.com/ Painting-Creations-By-Judy-Larkins). A selection of work can be purchased at BE Artists Gallery in Banner Elk, NC (BEartistsgallery.com) and Toe River Crafts in Celo, NC (toerivercrafts.com).
David: My paintings can be viewed and purchased at Creative Interiors by Darlene Parker, 4501 Tynecastle Hwy, Banner Elk, NC, or view my website at https://www.davidthompsonart4u.com. art! About the featured artwork: Judy Larkin’s paintings are on page 46 and David Thompon’s paintings are on this page.
GABRIEL OFIESH
920 Shawneehaw Avenue, Banner Elk, NC 28604 H ardinJewelry @ gmail.com • 828-898-4653
Sally Nooney ARTIST STUDIO GALLERY
Fine Art Paintings Glass Creations & Heirloom Jewelry Scenic Hwy 194 South Midway between Valle Crucis & Banner Elk Tuesday thru Saturday 10-5 828-963-7347 • Nooney@skybest.com sallynooney.com • Commissions Invited! Frank Nooney Furniture Restoration, and Antiques at the Gallery, next door
Fine Furniture in the High Country
Boutique style showroom offering an incredible selection of brands including Century, Universal, Vanguard, Hickory White and more. All items can be bought directly off our showroom floor.
7595 Valley Blvd. Blowing Rock, NC 28605 | 828.818.0044 | Follow us: Facebook.com/BentTreeFurniture
BLUE RIDGE EXPLORERS:
Supporting Our Mountain Streams By Tamara S. Randolph
Live stakes planted on an eroded river bank
Living in the mountains of NC, VA and TN means being blessed with an abundance of creeks, streams and rivers. People rely on the streams and rivers in our watersheds for recreation, scenery, food, drinking water, irrigation, flood control, wildlife habitat, and other uses.
Thanks to the efforts of dedicated people and organizations, our waterways remain some of the healthiest in the region. And yet many sections of our favorite streams and rivers are always in need of help. Development, agriculture, and a variety of other disturbances can result in the removal of plant life along streams, which in turn increases the flow of water. Without plants and roots, soil particles are more likely to wash away during heavy rains and rapid snow melts. In addition to land damage, erosion results in sediment build-up and cloudy water that degrades habitat for fish and aquatic plants.
Riparian Buffers to the Rescue
Riparian buffers are the vegetated areas along water bodies that connect terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. According to Andy Hill, High Country Regional Director of Watauga Riverkeeper, an affiliate of the environmental and conservation organization MountainTrue, “The native trees and shrubs that make up our riparian buffers are key components to healthy streams, rivers and lakes.” Hill adds that streamside riparian buffers help filter pollution from runoff, trap excess soil and take up surplus nutrients. “As a result,
Stream with healthy riparian buffer Stream with heavy erosion / land loss
these buffers keep water temperatures cooler (which trout require), prevent erosion and loss of land, and provide food and shelter for wildlife.”
Ideal riparian buffers consist of a variety of native plants that thrive on moisture. Our local NC State Extension Office states that, “native trees, shrubs, flowers, ferns, and grasses at varying heights provides a tangled mix of different root structures that help to hold soil to the banks, along with all kinds of other benefits to the environment.”
Live Stakes Stabilize Stream Banks
For landowners and recreationists alike, winter is a good time to assess the need for erosion control. Exposed and eroding stream banks can often be restored and stabilized through the natural and cost-effective practice of live staking.
A live stake is a cutting from a native tree or shrub that can be planted along a bank during the time of the year when the plant is dormant, typically October through March. Each live stake develops a root structure through the winter and early spring, and as stakes grow into trees, they stabilize the sides of the rivers and creeks, and reduce the overall amount of sediment getting into the river.
If you’re a landowner, chances are you have some common natives already growing along the stream banks on your property that can be harvested as live stakes. Once the dormant plants are cut, they can be planted along the bank with ease. “We recommend planting native pollinators such as elderberry, nine bark, silky willow, silky dogwood, sycamore and butterfly bush,” Hill advises.
The NC State Extension website provides a variety of step-by-step guides to backyard stream repair, including the document “Small-scale Solutions to Eroding Streambanks,” at https://gardening.ces.ncsu. edu/water-2/. But perhaps a better way to learn more about live staking is to participate in one of MountainTrue’s hands-on Live Staking Workdays this winter. By working alongside seasoned “streamkeepers,” you’ll learn the process for selecting, harvesting and planting live stakes, while also helping the Watauga River. “All sections [of the Watauga] are in need of some plantings,” says Hill. And every live stake that is planted reduces the amount of sediment that flows into one of our most valuable local rivers.
You’ll find a list of live staking events at https://mountaintrue.org/eventscalendar/. And if you can’t make it to a Workday this season, you can still reach out to MountainTrue for assistance. “We focus our efforts on public lands,” says Hill, “but we are always happy to consult on private land.”
Learn more about Watauga Riverkeeper and MountainTrue at MountainTrue.org.
Tamara S. Randolph, CML’s editor, is a N.C. Certified Environmental Educator and Blue Ridge Naturalist. You can reach Tamara at tamara@NCexplorers.com.
A HELPING HAND
At Blue Ridge Energy, we understand … keeping up with your bills may be tough during this time of COVID-19. In response, we launched the In This Together Relief Fund to help members and customers with their bills for electric and propane and fuels.
If you need help paying your electric or propane and fuels bill, apply for In This Together funds through the local helping agencies found at BlueRidgeEnergy.com/Assistance.
If you’re able to help, please consider donating to the fund. Every penny goes directly to help neighbors in need. Call or go to
BlueRidgeEnergy.com/Together.
IN THIS T GETHER RELIEF FUND
COVID19
For more ways we’re helping, visit BlueRidgeEnergy.com/COVID19.
Purple Finch, by Nelda Faulkner Pine Siskin, by Linda Butler Evening Grosbeak, by Mick Thompson
Ready for Finches?! By Curtis Smalling
Thanks to COVID and a very strange and arises from a behavior tied to food darker overall and having an eye line and stressful 2020, a lot of folks are resources. Many of these finch species and more of a face pattern than House turning their eyes and ears to what is are boreal forest nesting birds, meaning Finches. If you get a good look, the under happening in their own backyards and they nest in upper New England into tail coverts, or crissum as it’s called, is gardens this year. Birds can provide some the Boreal Forests of Canada and all pure white in Purple Finches and white solace and lift our sprits as we watch are seed eaters, many eating the seeds in with brown streaks in the House Finch. them go about their lives, sharing our cones and buds of conifers like hemlock, That field mark is easy to see when the spaces and providing bursts of color and spruce, and pines. When these seed birds are feeding at your feeder. song. sources are scarce heading into winter, Don’t forget your other regulars—
It is easy here in the High Country thousands of these birds move south or keep suet, sunflower seeds and wild bird to miss our summer residents during the “irrupt” and go in search of good food mix on hand for the rest of the birds. cold snowy days of winter. But all is not resources. The sparrows and Mourning Doves lost on our feeders and yards during the Finches do like black oil sunflower tend to like to feed on the ground and winter. Many hardy species stay with us seeds, thistle seed, and peanut hearts love the small round seeds of wild bird or join us from areas farther north and so keep those feeders stocked. Once in mix. Good luck this winter, as the finch thankfully many are common feeder 1977 when we had a great finch year, my family adds a lot of life and color to birds. We love our chickadees, titmice, feeder was visited by about 50 Evening our yards and gardens! And please stay cardinals, downy woodpeckers and many Grosbeaks for about a month. They ate safe. Bird watching can be done from others that visit our yards and feeders, about 10 pounds of sunflower seeds per home, or alone on a walk, but I know it bringing some life and activity to an day! So make sure you have plenty on is most fun with friends and family out otherwise cold and wintery landscape. hand. Already here in the High Country exploring our favorite places or traveling
But nothing can really compare to we are seeing reports of Pine Siskins, to new ones. We will get back to that a surprise visit from hordes of finches. Purple Finches, Evening Grosbeaks and eventually, so in the meantime please Pine Siskins, American Goldfinches, Red Crossbills. It has been literally years explore your isolated part of the world Purple Finches, and occasionally or even decades for most of us since we and take some comfort that the natural Evening Grosbeaks or Red Crossbills saw our last Evening Grosbeak. So be on world continues to inspire and enrich all all can show up (or not) at our winter the lookout. of us. feeders. We always count ourselves lucky Also keep in mind that we have to have sometimes dozens of these lively another finch or two here that are Curtis Smalling is a Boone resident and is the Director birds grace our yards—that is unless largely non-migratory (or at least found of Conservation for Audubon North Carolina. He works they decide to stay for weeks and bring here year round). That is the American conserving birds in North Carolina through monitoring literally hundreds of their friends! Goldfinch and the House Finch. Similar species populations, working with volunteers in
The reason for this erratic behavior, to the Purple Finch, the House Finch Important Bird Areas, and through public outreach. Visit showing up in droves some years and male has a rosy reddish head and chest. nc.audubon.org for more details. being completely absent the next, is Females of both species are brown, with kind of peculiar to finches in our region Purple Finch females being somewhat
The most Incredible Toy Store in the High Country! Mon-Sat 10am-6pm Open Sundays May-Dec 1-5pm Hwy 321 South
between Boone and Blowing Rock
www.incredibletoycompany.com 828 264 1422
We Care About The Health Of Your Pet
• High Quality Dog & Cat Food • Raw Diet & Freeze-Dried Pet Foods • USA Made Treats & Home-Baked Treats • Featuring alternative supplements for your pets dietary and health needs • Toys, collars, leashes, and more • New Self-serve dog wash available • Winner, Best of the Best in Avery Co. 2019 & 2020
176 Shawneehaw Ave. Downtown Banner Elk NC 828.898.5625 | www.mybestfriendsbarkery.com www.facebook.com/My-Best-Friends-Barkery
PET BOUTIQUE Since 2010
Yes we are open! Curbside delivery available
Furniture • Appliances Small Household Items • Books Clothing & Accessories
1/2 Off on clothing every Saturday!
Donations welcomed. Pick up available for furniture and appliances Thank you for your continued support 828-262-5029 877 West King Street, Boone NC Open Mon-Sat, 9am-5pm
SPONSORED BY RESORT AREA MINISTRIES
“Deliveries that You can Count on for your Home and Business” Our professional staff is here to help you this heating season with not only deliveries. We complete new installations as well as perform service and repairs of existing propane appliances. 828-733-3603 | www.BlueRidgePropaneNC.net | blueridgepropanenc@gmail.com Avery County’s only locally owned full-service propane company | Member of the Better Business Bureau Sales & Services | Firelogs | Space & Wall Heaters | Tankless Water Heaters | Outdoor Fire Pits “Proudly serving the High Country since 1992”
Explore the Parkway’s History with a New Online Gallery
By Rita Larkin, Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation
If you love Blue Ridge Parkway history, you now have a new way to delve into the national park unit’s fascinating history. More than 8,000 photographs and documents have been made available in the National Parks Service’s online archive, NPGallery.
The trove includes photos of road and tunnel construction, families at picnic areas, historical demonstrations, maps, and so much more. The work to upload, label, and categorize the files was funded by donors to the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation.
The project will serve visitors, students, researchers, writers, educators, and park staff for decades to come. This fall, the gallery connected one man with his family’s ties to the Parkway.
“My grandfather worked for the National Park Service on the Parkway until his retirement. The gallery not only led me to photographs that could potentially show my grandfather, but the search feature let me find two photos that were actually tagged with his name, along with the date and location,” Neil Bridge explained.
All images in the gallery can be downloaded and are available for public use. Bridge plans to print and frame the photos as a gift for his mom.
An earlier project laid the groundwork for NPGallery. Approximately 7,000 of the photographs in the gallery were originally scanned and digitized for the Driving Through Time website (https://docsouth. unc.edu/blueridgeparkway/), a digital humanities project of UNC-Chapel Hill led by Dr. Anne Mitchell Whisnant, the author of Super-Scenic Motorway: A Blue Ridge Parkway History.
No matter where you are this season, you can explore the archive at NPGallery. nps.gov/blri. Snow Scene, Bull Gap 1962
Family Picnic at Flat Top Manor, 1967
Neil Bridge’s Grandfather, 1953
Craft Center at Flat Top Manor, 1953
Cookout, Weismans View, 1974 Peaks of Otter Picnic Area, Milepost 86, 1960
Blue Ridge Parkway by the Numbers
There is so much to enjoy within our national park, including: • 369 miles of trails • 216 overlooks • 8 campgrounds • 942 campsites • 14 picnic areas
Ranger with camper at Peaks of Otter Campground, 1959
WE ARE FULLY INSURED AND PROVIDE CERTIFICATES OF INSURANCE.
PHOTO BY TODD BUSH
Hunter’s Tree Service, Inc.
Hunter’s Tree Service, Inc. has served the High Country since 1980. Our mission is to provide you with skilled tree care and outstanding customer service, while caring for one of your most valuable resources. As your complete tree specialist, we offer a range of services:
Pruning View enhancement Tree removal Stump grinding Bucket truck service Crane service Cabling Lightning protection Pre-construction consultation Disease and pest control POB 1674, Banner Elk NC 28604 / 828-733-3320 or 828-953-5094
hunterstreeserviceinc.com
ANTIQUES • PRODUCE • FOLK ART | 2963 HWY 105, BOONE NC • 828-719-1219
Blowing Rock Souvenir Sportswear Area’s Largest Selection of Hats & Shirts Be Sure to Visit Sunset Sweets & Heats (over 500 hot sauces)
Winter Accessories
From Boots & Sleds to Ice Grippers &Snowshoes
Jewelry & Gifts Life Is Good
T-Shirts
Hershey’s Dip
Ice Cream
9am-8pm Sun-Thurs | 9am-10pm Fri & Sat Main St., Blowing Rock | 828-295-9326
umm
When it matters...
MOUNTAIN JEWELERS
SINCE 1985
Between the 2 stoplights in Newland NC
Thurs, Fri & Sat, 10am-6pm || 828.733.0186
MountainJewelersNC.com
High Quality Furniture at Affordable Prices
